Bank plans suburban branch

Bank plans suburban branch

Courtesy Grand River Bank

A 10-year-old bank in the area is building its second branch.

Grand River Bank, which has one location in Grandville, at 4471 Wilson Ave. SW, is building a second branch in Grand Rapids Township, at 50 Crahen Ave. NE.

The project’s cost was not disclosed.

Grand River Bank expects to open the branch next spring or summer.

Liz Bracken, president and COO, and Pat Gill, CEO, said Grand River Bank primarily serves commercial borrowers, but by growing its retail banking deposits via this branch, it expects to expand both its personal and business lending capacity.

“Our consumers, even though they don’t really want to come to the bank, like to have us be close by, so we view this as an opportunity to expose our brand and our existing customers to us and create a greater market awareness of who we are,” Bracken said.

Gill added the bank was growing beyond its capacity in Grandville.

“We’re certainly excited that the growth of the bank has made it necessary for us to add another location, and we’re eager to bring the products and services and our brand of banking to this part of the market,” Gill said.

Grand River Bank expects to hire five employees for the new branch, while also transferring some from its existing location. The new branch will have capacity for up to 30 employees.

The bank expects to hire “an experienced banker” to head up the Grand Rapids Township branch.

Firms on the project

Cascade Township-based BDR is developing the building in partnership with Grand River Bank and will occupy part of the second floor.

Grand River Bank will lease 8,300 square feet on the first floor from BDR through an affiliated LLC.

Ada-based Dixon Architecture is the project’s architect.

Mary Witte, owner of Grand Rapids-based r.o.i. Design, is handling the interior design.

Grand River Bank

Founded in 2009 by 23 West Michigan business leaders with the support of 750 investors, Grand River Bank — a subsidiary of Grand River Commerce (OTC: GNRV) — offers personal and business banking services, including commercial and mortgage lending.

As of June 30, the bank had total assets of $294.7 million, an increase of $30.4 million, or 11.5%, over year-end 2018.